God Will Fight for You, but You Still Have to Go to Battle
“Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes” Deuteronomy 1: 26-30.
The Lord had glorious things in store for His people. The land God had promised ancient Israel was a good land, flowing with milk and honey (Deuteronomy 26: 9). But most of them perished in the wilderness and never saw the fulfillment of that promise.
To read the passage for context, click here.
And this is true today as well. Not many Christians ever attain the abundant life God wants to give us. Nor do we always enter our promise land. Why is this?
Impossible Odds but God Will Fight for You
Because the requirements to enter in are as difficult as the land is glorious. Not only do we have to fight enemies, but we have to fight enemies that are stronger than us. They are dangerous, powerful. . . ominous.
And the defeat of them seems impossible. In fact, apart from the Spirit of God, it is.
The Lord “gives” us the land in the sense that He enables us to defeat our enemies and grants us the victory over them (Exodus 6: 8). But to fight enemies that are more powerful than us requires the utmost trust in God.
Fighting enemies that are stronger and more numerous and powerful than us is really a death sentence. That is, unless God actually does fight for us.
Doing battle with these enemies is what it means to lose our life. Unless God supernaturally causes us to defeat them, they will slaughter us.
What Do Powerful Foes Represent?
But what do these powerful foes represent? I believe they represent sin. Sin is really the only thing that will keep us out of our promise land.
The temptation will be to try to meet our own needs and take care of ourselves rather than wait for God to do it. It will be to try to preserve our life, and avoid the trouble and affliction that comes with righteousness.
It will be to run away from and avoid things that are challenging and evoke fear and anxiety. But we must fight enemies and not just enemies but ones that are more numerous and powerful than us.
But God will be with us, and fight for us and grant us victory over them. This is equivalent to the narrow path that leads to life (Mathew &; 13, 14). This path is one of affliction, trouble and suffering tribulation. This is the literal definition of the word narrow according to Strong’s Bible Dictionary.
A Path by Definition Is Temporary
But the destination is life.
The path is hard, but once you reach the destination, your troubles are over. It’s a path, after all. This implies that it’s not permanent but a means to an end or destination.
In the same way, fighting powerful enemies can feel overwhelming. But once we defeat them and enter our promise land, we will enjoy sweet peace and rest and repose. We will have entered our “rest”(Hebrews 4: 8-11).
To read another post related to see Barrenness and Fruitfulness: The Link.